There are certain times of year when there’s a lot of work being done, but few results to seen. In the winter and the spring, athletes all over the country are working their tails off in interval workouts and long endurance sessions, frequently alone, with little to no recognition for their efforts. And there are …
August is a bizarre time of year for a lot of athletes. A season’s worth of training has produced new heights of fitness of performance, but motivation to continue training – and even competing – begins to wane. Just as you have the power to do anything, you decide to do nothing. That’s just weird. …
Every event you do is an end unto itself and a prelude to your next adventure. Last week I was in France, riding several stages of the Tour de France route with a great group of cyclists. Next week I’m racing the Power of Four mountain bike race in Aspen, CO. The two are completely …
As the Tour de France enters its final weekend, I’ve been thinking a lot about risk and reward. Whenever you’re facing a dominating rider like Chris Froome, the storyline revolves around the risks competitors must take in an attempt to put him in difficulty. But even outside the race for the yellow jersey, risk-and-reward has …
What a fascinating second week of racing at the 2013 Tour de France! After a hectic first week, this week featured a controversial knock-down in a sprint finish (an accident, in my view), the first long individual time trial (Holy Froome!), and an epic crosswind battle that exposed vulnerabilities in Chris Froome’s Sky team. One …
As I watched the Stage 4 team time trial unfold earlier this week, the story of Cannondale rider Ted King struck a chord with me. Riding injured and alone, the young American fought his way to the finish line, but arrived seven seconds too late. His finishing time was outside the official 25% time cut …
As the Centennial Tour de France gets underway this week, I’m happy to say that I’ll be contributing weekly articles to www.roadbikeaction.com. To give you a sense for what you can expect, I’m not going to be regurgitating news and stage results. There are plenty of places to get that. What’s more interesting to me …
For the second June in a row, the biggest news out of Colorado Springs is a major wildfire. Last June it was the Waldo Canyon Fire that blackened 18,000 acres, destroyed 346 homes, and killed two people. This week it’s been the Black Forest Fire, which as of Friday afternoon has burned 15,700 acres, destroyed …
The night before embarking on our 200+ mile journey through the flint hills of Kansas, defending Dirty Kanza 200 champion Rebecca Rusch addressed her fellow CTS Athletes and told us all, “Whether you’re the first or last tomorrow, you will absolutely be a changed person by the end.” The Queen of Pain knows what she’s …
If you’re reading this during the day on June 1, I’m most likely somewhere in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. More precisely, I’m probably (hopefully) still riding on a gravel road outside Emporia, KS with a thousand or so other intrepid souls for the Dirty Kanza 200. The question I’ve gotten many, many times …